Hermansyah, an IT expert from Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB), was violently attacked early Sunday morning on the Jagorawi toll road following a minor crash with another car.
According to police, Hermansyah and his wife were driving back from Jakarta to Depok on the toll road at around 4am when his car bumped into another.
“It’s known that the culprits were driving a sedan. They ordered the victim to pull over and then they forcefully opened his car door,” said Depok Police spokesman Firdaus, as quoted by Tempo yesterday.
After Hermansyah got out of the car, the attackers – believed to be five people – ganged up on him. One of them, who was believed to be carrying a machete, hacked Hermansyah with it.
“After the hacking, the culprits fled,” Firdaus said.
Hermansyah reportedly suffered serious wounds on his head, neck, and arm. He and his wife stayed in the car until toll road officers came to their aid and took him to a hospital in Depok, where he is still being treated.
Aside from the violence, the attack on Hermansyah caught the public’s attention because he had recently appeared in TVOne’s political talk show program Indonesia Lawyer’s Club and expressed his belief that the pornography case involving firebrand cleric Rizieq Shihab of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) was fabricated in order to bring him down.
However, the police have not linked the attack to the now infamous pornography case, and, at this point in their investigation, it’s just as likely that Hermansyah was randomly attacked.
Leaders of The National Movement to Safeguard the Indonesian Ulema Council’s Fatwa (GNPF-MUI), an umbrella group of hardline Islamic groups who have been vocal in their support for Rizieq, yesterday paid Hermansyah a visit to the hospital, and even they refused to speculate that the attack was linked to Rizieq’s pornography case.
“I don’t think that he has been threatened all this time. He’s always been in constant communication with me,” said GNPF-MUI head Bachtiar Nasir, as quoted by Kompas.
